Saving Union Station

The story of the rebirth of Springfield’s Union Station was a 40-year saga that began with a promise to save a landmark that was teetering on the brink of extinction.

Wayne E. Phaneuf, Executive Editor of The Republican and Author of Saving Union Station recaps the history of Union Station from its grand opening in 1926 to its grand re-opening in 2016.

As in most stories it’s best to start at the beginning. On December 19, 1926, an estimated 30,000 people toured Opening Day of Union Station. The new facility with its gleaming terrazzo floors, had a restaurant, lunch counter, barbershop, shoeshine parlor and small shops to service hundreds of daily passengers who boarded up to 130 trains every 24 hours.

The new station was Springfield’s fourth. The link from Worcester to Springfield opened in October of 1839. In that month, the directors of the railroad hired George Washington Whistler, father of the famous painter, to lead the effort to push over the Berkshires and connect with Albany. By March of 1844 the work was complete and Springfield was at the crossroads of rail traffic for the next 125 years.

When the troops came home from World War II, many of whom started their journey to the war at Union Station, were buying cars and settling in the suburbs. Then came President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. In 1958, the New York Central line in Springfield reported an immediate loss of 50 percent of passengers to Boston due to the opening of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and sold the Union Station building to David Buntzman, a New York real estate developer. He closed the doors of the station in 1973 when Amtrak moved to a small space entering through Lyman Street. The grand station was left to decay as Buntzman presented many ideas but failed to move forward as the years passed and the building further deteriorated.

In 1973, 25-year-old Richard E. Neal joined newly elected Mayor William C. Sullivan as his aide. Neal had a front row seat as repeated attempts to repurpose Union Station came and went. The city’s frustration with Buntzman continued. In 1977 Neal launched his first bid for political office when he held a campaign rally on June 23. His promise to save Union Station was launched from the crumbling main hall of the station packed with 800 supporters.

Mayor Richard Neal and David Buntzman at Union Station – April 30, 1987

The 40-year fight to save the building had begun as Councilor Neal gained support, serving three terms, two as president, before launching a successful bid for mayor of Springfield in 1983. Within days of taking office the new mayor, accompanied by civic, business and local media, was setting up trips to visit St. Louis, Hartford and Albany to look at successful train station revivals in those cities. Nearly four years passed and Mayor Neal voiced his frustration with both the owner of Union Station and the owners of the decaying Hotel Charles, adjacent to the station. He set a timetable of six months to reverse the Hotel Charles’ problems and one-year for Union Station.

On June 28, 1988, a fire ravaged the Hotel Charles, leaving 80 people homeless. In November of 1988 Mayor Neal was elected to Congress, but he didn’t forget Union Station. On March 2, 1989 the Springfield Redevelopment Authority acquired the building for $1 and begin to look towards implementing a plan for the Charles site and Union Station. Butzman fought the takeover in court and it wasn’t until Jan. 26, 1996 that Federal Judge Michael A. Ponsor ruled the city was in the right and could finally move ahead with the plan.

Neal, who had begun looking for state and federal funding as a mayor, now was able to use his role as a congressman to reach out to both Democrats and Republicans to help raise the money to make the dream of saving Union Station come true. In 1989, the Committee on Public Works set aside the first sizeable funding of $15 million. With the 1993 signing of the Highway Bill several more millions were available. In 1999 Sen. Edward M. Kennedy traveled to Springfield with a check for $1.25 million.

On July 27,2011 Congressman Neal announced that $29.7 million in Federal Transit Administration funds that had been frozen for several years was now available for the project. The money was transferred to the Springfield Redevelopment Authority which began the hiring of HDR Architects, P.C. to design the project along with Shadley Associated Landscape Architects. Skanska USA Buildings was named project manager.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Raymond H. LaHood, a former Republican congressman and colleague of Congressman Neal, was also instrumental in funneling funds to Union Station.

On June 19, 2012, Secretary LaHood traveled to Springfield to join Congressman Neal in announcing that funding for shovels in the ground was in place and the project was a go. On August 7, 2012 Daniel O’Connell & Sons was selected to manage the revitalization of the station.

Congressman Richard Neal and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno

Phase 1 kicked off with a ceremonial groundbreaking on November 20, 2012. Neal, Mayor Domenic Sarno and Gov. Deval Patrick, who announced $4 million in state funding at the event, gathered together with SRA officials for a few whacks with sledgehammers at the wall of the baggage building. The project had finally begun some 86 years after the grand opening of Union Station.

The deconstruction and the reconstruction of Union Station lasted four years and one month, officially ending on December 31, 2016. Hundreds of union employees worked on the project as the great hall was gutted to the bare walls and rebuilt. Parts of its storied past were restored and utilized, from the original clock that hung at the entrance to the tunnel since the building opened, to a wooden train schedule board and 90-year-old baggage carts. Of course, the original Terrazzo floors are gleaming again.

In addition to the train station there is a state of the arts intermodal transportation center with local and long-distance buses and a new parking garage. Office, retail and restaurant space has been leased.

Thousands showed up for an open house on June 25^th to celebrate the dream of saving Union Station.